Phoenix
by augustfences
Summary: Aang died in the iceberg shortly after he was frozen. Each Avatar after him was swiftly hunted down and killed until the Fire Nation's Avatar was unable to be found. The Avatar that has the power to save the world is born in the very heart of the country that has been trying to burn it. Will the Avatar be able to rise from the ashes or will she burn? One-shot, might continue.


After years of being groomed to hunt down the Avatar, an 11-year-old Azula is horrified after she accidentally causes a vase filled with water to explode in a fit of rage. Forcing herself to believe anything but the obvious, she brushed it off as a simple coincidence. Just like everything else in the palace, that pot was probably ancient, cracked, and just waiting to burst apart. She never saw the ripples of the pond moving towards her while she went through breathing routines in the courtyard.

A few weeks later, her brother mentions their absent mother during an argument. He says that their mother could never love Azula because she was mean. Hurt and anger overwhelmed her senses. They both missed the faint blue light that flickered in her eyes. Zuko was blown onto his rear and the leaves on the tree that overlooked the turtle duck pond were viciously blown from the limbs they had been attached to. He stared at her with wide eyes, both siblings were too surprised to speak. By the time that Zuko found the sense to open his mouth, Azula had already turned on her heel and walked away.

That night, she dreamed about a young boy in what looked to be a temple. He was around her age and had tattoos running along each of his limbs. She couldn't quite log all of his features. She only saw his appearance when he looked in the mirror. She looked up at the sky, strangely dressed people with the same tattoos were flying through the clouds. Could this be...?

Azula's eyes snapped open. That dream was too vivid for her own taste. She doubted she would get any more sleep that night. She heard the boy's voice in the back of her mind and concluded that her brain was being much too imaginative. Azula pulled herself away from her bed decided to meditate.

The usually enlightening exercise made everything worse. She was a prodigy, after all. What she was excelling at, she had no idea. She looked to the night sky and instantly became captivated by the full moon shining through her window. Her pulse quickened and she swore that she could feel the blood pumping through her veins. She decided that she was just anxious about her dream.

Another month passes without any more incidents. She is being dominated and cornered by Ozai during one of their sparring matches. Flames brush by her, their closeness would burn anyone else. Azula made an advance, but her father deftly overtook the flame. He was not holding back today. Ozai's blast overpowered her own and it took every last ounce of energy for her dig her feet into the ground and push back. Suddenly, her father fell and blue flames filled the training grounds. Azula stared at him in disbelief, his rage-filled eyes bore into her own.

She looked to where he had been standing; the tiles were warped and cracked. She didn't have much time to dwell on the cause.

"Get out. We are done training for today." Ozai's low, angry growl cut through her entire being. Her body was exceedingly hot, but the rage seeping from his words made a chill run down her spine. It was all she could do to bow and hurry off.

She has a nightmare that night. This time she found herself on the ground, surrounded by smoke fire, and rock. The sky was nearly black from ash. A man walks over and begins to speak. He's older and regally dressed. Her vision is too blurry to make out who it was. She tried to force this form of herself to stand up, but she soon found out that control was not hers to be taken. She felt her hand reaching out for the figure. He was speaking but she couldn't hear it. He turned away from her. The last thing she saw was the Fire Lord's hairpiece atop his head.

Azula sat up quickly, a cool sweat causing the red silk sheets to cling onto her skin. She died. No, she didn't die. The man she was in her dream died and the Fire Lord passively allowed the volcano's destruction to claim him. She looked around her room and down at her hands just to make sure she was Azula and not some random person again. Then again, the people she became in her dreams never felt like strangers.

Her mind was running wild with countless unanswered questions. She had never been one for spirituality, thinking it was useless as it was foolish. Her stomach twisted at the thought Agni himself punishing her like this. She was the daughter of Fire Lord Ozai, the true heir to the throne, the most talented firebender in recent history. If anything, Agni would have been blessing her this whole time. Wait. what was she thinking? This entire line of thought was absolutely ridiculous.

As ridiculous as it had all been, Azula still couldn't sleep.

She watched the sunrise from her window as dread filled her. She would, most likely, be receiving a harsh punishment due to her besting her father yesterday. The lack of sleep and anxiety building up inside of her successfully made Azula a nervous wreck. She forced herself out of bed at a languid pace, not even having the energy to call for servants to aid her in getting ready. After making her way to the mirror she was able to take in her reflection. To put it simply, her appearance absolutely unpresentable as the princess of the great Fire Nation.

Azula rubbed the sleep from her eyes. It was an action that she hadn't been inclined to do since she was a child. Wasn't she still a child? She shook those thoughts from her mind. Of course, after she emptied it of one thing, another filled its place. An image of the warped tiles in the training grounds found its place at the forefront of her mind. It certainly was an odd occurrence. She's been bending blue fire for nearly a year now, but it never managed to get hot enough to warp the tile. She chuckled to herself; she'd have to be an earthbender for that to happen.

Wait.

Could she have...?

No. Absolutely not. That was impossible, wasn't it?

Looking back on a few incidents, she could see how it would make sense. The vase, the leaves, the tiles; a firebender couldn't do those things. But that would mean that she was the- No. She couldn't even stomach the thought. She's been training to be the one who will one day slay the Avatar. There was no way this could be happening.

She felt sick.

She looked at her wide-eyed reflection in the mirror. The terror in its eyes made it feel like she was looking at a stranger. She hoped, more than anything else, that this was a dream. Her heart began racing fast enough to make her feel like she'd just fought an Agni Kai. She desperately needed answers, but she had no one to ask. The Fire Sages were the only ones who would know anything, but if she really is what she fears they will tell her father. She could be killed.

There was only one person in the palace that she could even begin to trust to keep her secret. Her expression morphed into a scowl of reluctance. The only man that she could go to was her foolish, tea-drinking, fuddy duddy uncle. She would have to swallow every last ounce of pride for this.

Azula gathered her bearings and stood. She decided that she would make her way to his study immediately. They were both firebenders, it wouldn't be out of the question for him to be up this early. She put in her hair-piece and rubbed her face. She truly could not believe that she was doing this.

She made her way through the halls of the palace, each step causing the gravity of her decision to sink in a little more. She tried to steady her breathing in order to calm her nerves as she approached his door. Standing there, silent in order to steel herself, she began hearing voices. So she was crazy now too? Brilliant. It took her a moment to realize those voices weren't actually in her head, but on the other side of her Uncle's door. Immediately, she decided to listen in. What visitors could he even have?

"The comet...three years... Fire Lord... Peace... Defeat... " She could only make out bits and pieces of what was being said.

Thoughts of her own inner turmoil subsided, pushed away by the thought of her uncle truly being a traitor. The very idea made her blood boil. She knew her uncle was scum, but she had no idea he was planning on deposing of his own brother. Losing all sense of reason, she burst through the doors. Four surprised faces looked up. Some Fire Nation noble with a sword at his hip, a man with long white hair and dark skin, a man with a scar down his face and unkempt hair, and in the middle of it all... Her uncle. She eyed all of them suspiciously, both furious and fearful.

The swordsman stepped forward.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Avatar."

* * *

A/N: Hello! Inspiration for this story hit me like a brick the other night and I wanted to crank it out before the juices stopped flowing. For those of you following my other story, the next chapter of "Ripples" is in the works! It's been pretty hard for me to write with the semester picking up. If you liked this story or would like it to continue, please review! I wrote it with the intention of it being a one-shot, but if the interest is there I will see about continuing the story.


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